Mecir’s power too much for Canadian

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 28

Mecir’s power too much for Canadian

PA Auckland The top-seed, Miloslav Mecir, of Czechoslovakia, reached the quarter-finals of the $200,000 Benson and Hedges tennis open yesterday when he overpowered Glenn Michlbata, of Canada, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round. Mecir took 75 minutes to subdue his unseeded opponent but the victory emphasised the precise, efficient style which has earned Mecir a ranking of ninth in the world. Michlbata complained Mecir did not use his skill to overpower an opponent but would "beat you with a club slowly and wait for you to bleed to death. “I knew I could not beat him with ground shots but his serve seemed suspect, which was what I had intended to capitalise on,” he said. “But his serve is deceptive. There seemed to be nothing to it but I could not return often enough.” Mecir dropped service once — in the sixth game of the second set when he double faulted and did not get into rhythm. While Mecir dominated his second round match, his fellow Czech, Milan Srejber, could not continue the dominance he exerted against the American, Bud Schultz, in the first set. Schultz won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. The power of Srejber*s serve and his ability to put drives beyond the reach of the American gave the Czech an easy first set.

Schultz fought back, however, and had his first real inkling of victory in the eighth game of the third set.

“I did pretty well against Becker by stand-

Ing a long way back for the serve but against Srejber I guess I was not prepared enough with my warm up to take the big booming service and did badly in the first set,” Schultz said. Michiel Schapers, of the Netherlands, had a wellearned victory against last year’s Benson and Hedges champion, Mark Woodforde, of Australia, 6-3, 1-6, 8-6. After the first two sets had been shared,' Woodforde fought back from 5-1 down in the final set to equalise in the tenth game. >

Each player held in the next three games but the effort the Australian had put in early took its toll as Schapers broke to love in the fourteenth game to take the match. Afterwards Woodforde said: “I think I had in mind that I was the champion and did not need to practise hard. That was a mistake. I won’t be taking it too easy again. I will practise hard before the matches.” The Indian Davis Cup player and third seed, Ramesh Krishnan, won his match against Johan Carlsson, of Sweden, with greater ease than he expected. The 62-minute match ended 6-3, 6-1. Krishnan, a player much in the same mould as Mecir, will meet Derrick Rostagno today in one quarter-final while Mecir plays Brace Derlln, of New' Zealand. New Zealand’s David Mustard and Brett Steven will meet Gilad Bloom (Israel) and Johnny Levine (United States) in the men’s doubles to be played after the three singles matches on court one.